.....Mile stone 36 on the Mawchi Rd, now the Japanese were making there escape
through this area which leads into Siam, some 90 miles of it. Now the Mawchi
Road winds through jungle and mountains, you would never see the likes of,
It was like a lost world the jungle was so thick in places that it turned
day into night, birds of all colours, some very beautiful, butterflies as
big as birds, spiders as big as your hand. I was leading scout of a six man
patrol from B Company.

.....We patrolled down this road and at mile stone 36, I noticed a slight wisp
of smoke rising through the jungle. I crept forward and spotted a party of
20 Japs. They had no guards out which was unusual, our patrol closed up, we
decided to open up because the Japs wouldn’t give up without a fight.
During the fire fight one escaped he high tailed it through the jungle. Now
they had been cooking a large pig on a spit they hade constructed, it looked
delicious, but what drew our attention was the bundles of money, thousands
upon thousands of Rupee notes, there was a small fortune there.

.....We gathered up as much as we could carry leaving the rest with the dead
Japs. When we returned to base we immediately reported what had discovered
and declared the money handing it. Each note was signed for by each member
of the patrol. The Company Officer said if the money was not claimed it was
rightfully ours. It was a full five weeks before we heard that the money was
counterfeit. Why did it take so long to work that out?

Letter 2: WW III.....Several months after the war had ended and we were stationed at Rangoon
waiting for Troopships to take us home. Who should turn up, the War Minister.
He said no Troopships were available; they were being used to bring the thousands
of prisoners of war home. That was a not so because it was common knowledge
that they were too ill to travel. They were so thin and had to be built up
as they were too undernourished, diseased and weak due to the ill treatment
at the hands of the Japanese.

.....The War Minster nearly had a riot on his hands. In the end the authorities
had to arrange our leave in Calcutta, for this they had to ship us there in
smaller boats because there were thousands of us. I was extremely lucky to
be in a party of a hundred that went to Calcutta Race Course, a beautiful place.

.....Calcutta at the time was swamped with Yanks they were everywhere, Calcutta
was a stop gap for them returning from the Pacific theatre of war. It was our
first night out at a large Servicemen’s Club. The place was packed with
Yanks and quite a few British Servicemen. Every time our boys went to the bar
for drinks they were met with “you God Dam Limeys” and remarks
about who won the war the Yanks or the Brit's and then it happened World War
III, all hell broke loose; Military Police came from all directions. British
and American Police waded in with batons. The next morning some of us were
up before the Camp Commandant, he said, “you are a bloody disgrace”.
He reminded me of Terry Thomas* with his big moustache. Before he dismissed
us he said “who got the worst of it?”